John W. Frost

John "Jack" Frost
Country (sports) United States
Born (1934-10-23) 23 October 1934 (age 90)
Monterey, California, U.S.
Turned pro1950 (amateur tour)
Retired1968
Singles
Career record305–151
Career titles20
Grand Slam singles results
French Open2R (1959)
Wimbledon4R (1960)
US Open4R (1954, 1961)
Doubles
Grand Slam doubles results
Wimbledon2R (1958, 1960)
Mixed doubles
Grand Slam mixed doubles results
Wimbledon3R (1959)

John W. Frost (born October 23, 1934) is an American scholar and former touring tennis player.[1]

Tennis career

In 1949, Frost won the U.S. National Boys' (15-and-under) Championships at Kalamazoo, Michigan[2] and the U.S. National Juniors' (18-and-under) three years later(1952).[3] Following his win, he was awarded a spot on the four-man U.S. Davis Cup team to play against Canada.[4] In the Fall he entered Stanford University, and in his senior year, 1956, he played in the final of the NCAA Singles Championship, losing to Alex Olmedo of U.S.C.[5] A decade later he was inducted into the Stanford Athletics' Hall of Fame.

Following military service, Frost played the international tennis circuit between 1958 and 1963, competing in six Wimbledon Championships and getting out to the 4th round in 1960, before losing to Nicola Pietrangeli.[6] He won the Irish[7] and Wiesbaden[8] (including the mixed doubles with Maria Bueno) and was in the finals of the South African,[9] the Canadian,[10] the Norwegian[11] and the Good Neighbor.[12] During the course of his career he had singles wins in major grass court tournaments over all-time greats Rod Laver,[13] Roy Emerson[14] and Vic Seixas[15] and over numerous international Davis-Cup mainstays on various surfaces: Luis Ayala,[16] Thomaz Koch,[17] Mario Llamas,[18] Antonio Palafox,[19] Giuseppe Merlo,[20] Istvan Gulyas,[21] Bob Mark,[22] Frew McMillan,[23] Christian Kuhnke,[24] Bob Hewitt,[25] Gordon Forbes,[26] Warren Woodcock,[27] Billy Knight,[28] Ron Holmberg,[29] Dennis Ralston,[30] Barry Mackay,[31]"Jack Douglas"[32] and Tom Brown.[33]

Frost beat Whitney Reed at Newport on grass in 1961, the year in which Reed achieved the number one ranking in the U.S.,[34] and in 1954 he defeated Straight Clark at Forest Hills in one of the longest matches played there in the pre-open era.[35]

Frost participated in the winning of several major doubles titles: Southampton (with Giammalva over Richardson and Holmberg),[36] Puerto Rico (with Richardson over Contreras and Llamas), and a semi-final win with John Cranston over Laver and Neale Fraser at the Irish Championships.[37] A top 10 player in the United States in 1961,[38] Frost was also ranked number 1 in Northern California in that year.[39] He was subsequently inducted into the Northern California Tennis Hall of Fame.

In 1964 Frost conducted a four-month good-will tennis program in Ghana[40] on behalf of the U.S. Government and did another one in India in 1990.[41]

Jack is retired and lives in Palm Desert, CA.

Academic

Frost received a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. from the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara (June 15, 1974). Simultaneously, through a series of National Defense Foreign Language grants, he was able to become proficient in Arabic and Swahili and eventually was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to cover a year abroad, some four months of it to be spent in Khartoum (Sudan).[42] Later he participated in writing an academic history of the British in the Sudan.[43] and contributed a review to the journal of the American Historical Association.[44] More recently he published a specialized history of the Monterey Peninsula.[45]

References

  1. ^ "Jack Frost | Overview | ATP Tour | Tennis". ATP Tour. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  2. ^ Monterey Peninsula Herald Aug 8, 1949
  3. ^ Kalamazoo Gazette Aug.4, 1952
  4. ^ Chicago Daily News. Aug 4, 1952
  5. ^ Kalamazoo Gazette Aug.1, 1956
  6. ^ "Frost lost to Pietrangeli 6-4 6-1 6-2",
  7. ^ Irish Independent July 13, 1959
  8. ^ Naugatuck Daily News May 19, 1958
  9. ^ Monterey Peninsula Herald April 14, 1960,
  10. ^ L'Action Catholique July 30-Aug. 5, 1953,
  11. ^ Aftenposten June 6, 1959
  12. ^ Miami Herald April 11–13, 1959
  13. ^ Irish Times July 11, 1958
  14. ^ San Francisco Chronicle June 18, 1960
  15. ^ Los Angeles Times August 12, 1954
  16. ^ Newport Daily News August 12, 1954
  17. ^ "Jack Frost defeated Thomaz Koch 3-6 7-5 9-7 13-11"[permanent dead link‍],
  18. ^ The Florida Times-Union April 11, 1958
  19. ^ San Francisco Examiner August 13, 1959
  20. ^ "Jack Frost defeated Beppe Merlo 6-0 6-0 6-3"[permanent dead link‍],
  21. ^ "Jack Frost beat Istvan Gulyas 7-5 6-4 6-4[permanent dead link‍],
  22. ^ "Jack Frost defeated Bob Marks 6-4 6-4 6-4"[permanent dead link‍],
  23. ^ "Jack Frost defeated Frew McMillan 6-4 6-1 7-5"[permanent dead link‍],
  24. ^ San Francisco Chronicle July 5, 1959],
  25. ^ Monterey Peninsula Herald July 22, 1960
  26. ^ Monterey Peninsula Herald April 14, 1960
  27. ^ Miami Herald April 12, 1959
  28. ^ San Francisco Chronicle August 8, 1956
  29. ^ Monterey Peninsula Herald July 28, 1961
  30. ^ Monterey Peninsula Herald July 27, 1961
  31. ^ http://www.tennisarchives.com."Jack Frost" (1957)
  32. ^ Aftenposten June 6, 1959,
  33. ^ http://www.tennisarchives.com."Jack Frost" (1957).
  34. ^ Newport Daily News Aug. 17, 1961
  35. ^ Tennis U.S.A. March 1969
  36. ^ Monterey Peninsula Herald Aug. 3, 1958
  37. ^ Ulick O'Conor, The Fitzwilliam Story p. 86.
  38. ^ USTA Yearbook-top 10 US men's rankings
  39. ^ Redwood City Tribune Jan. 22 1962,
  40. ^ The Ghanaian Times, Dec. 11, 1964
  41. ^ Indian Express(Pune) July 15, 1990
  42. ^ "John W Frost, "Interim Report" to "Fellowship Section, Division of Foreign Studies,Institute of International Studies. Office of Education. Washington D.c." May 22, 1971
  43. ^ "Memories of the Sudan Civil Service," for The British in the Sudan, 1898–1956, edited by Robert O. Collins and Francis M. Deng.
  44. ^ The Opening of the Nile Basin to "The American Historical Review" (Vol. 82, No. 1, Feb. 1977).
  45. ^ John W Frost. Monterey Peninsula's Sporting Heritage. Arcadia Press, 2007.